When humanity is still a newcomer on the futuristic galactic stage, it's up to the charismatic Commander Shepard to investigate the actions of a rogue agent in the first chapter of the Mass Effect trilogy.

Who is in your party of choice?

So I am playing Mass Effect again now that I will be able to finish it this time. I am however using the same party as last time because they are the coolest. My two people of choice are not people at all but Garrus and Wrex. They are just pretty badass and cool. I would have made this an entire Mass Effect Franchise thread but you can't have Wrex in your party in that one and some idiots might have killed him in one. Grunt is not the same.

I always choose Liara as my first side-kick and then either Wrex or Tali. Liara doesn't do so much ass kicking herself as she does suspend everyone in the air so I can shoot them. I believe Singularity is the skill where she makes everyone float and pulls them to a central point. This one skill makes her ridiculously powerful and then she still has Lift (which is the same thing but the enemies don't get pulled to a central point), Warp (this skill makes tough enemies drop as fast as having the game on easy), and Throw. I know I didn't mention Stasis but I never use this skill since I always feel putting the points towards other skills is more worth while. Tali is cool because she allows me to open everything electronic and she has some really powerful skills as well. Especially later in the game when you're fighting nothing but Geth. Her skill Hacking always makes fighting the Geth so much easier since they attack each other instead of your party. Damping is especially useful when fighting those Asari commandos. Neural Shock is always helpful too, especially in combination with Lift or Singularity, against a very large number of enemies trying to rush you. Finally, Wrex I choose a lot too simply because he is definitely the best at ass kicking. I always leave him equipped with a shotgun since he rushes right in and hits one or two enemies with Throw and then begins to literally beat the crap out of everyone else around him.

Do you find yourself leaning towards any particular type of ammo? I find that if I'm not using Inferno rounds that Tungsten rounds are the other type I go to a lot. Which is why I find it annoying that the games stops giving them to you. The only reason I still have some is that I always keep some Tungsten VII rounds on me from my first play through. Although, explosive rounds on a sniper rifle can be very handy too. But I tend to load the Tungsten rounds into my sniper rifles since it doesn't instantly over heat my weapon and it provides one shot kills for every enemy type. My weapon of choice is usually the Assault Rifle with Inferno Rounds X, Combat Optics X, and Frictionless Material X. I find that the Frictionless Material makes it so I basically have unlimited ammo since my weapon never over-heats. I usually load two Kinetic Exoskeleton Xs into my armor since each one gives a 26% boost to mobile accuracy. So the combination of the Combat Optics boost along with Kinetic Exoskeletons makes the Assault Rifle very accurate even when shooting while running around like an idiot. I also find it useful to keep some Shredder Round VIIs for when it's time to fight Rachni. Also, I usually equip at least one Medical Exoskeleton X on everyone when I fight the Rachni since their poison attacks go right through your shields and will drop your party pretty fast if you're not healing quickly.

I always have Tali in my party because her tech skills are awesome and I like seeing her blast fools in the face with her shotgun. My second party member is either Wrex or Garrus. My choices are mostly influenced by my affection for those characters, not by some kind of min-max logic.

I've just finished my first playthrough of the game (I know I'm a few years behind, but better late than never, right?), and throughout the whole game my party consisted of Kaidan and Wrex. I guess I made that choice out of balance, given that my Shepard was the Infiltrator class, but by the end of the game I was pretty attached to both of those guys:

When it came to the decision of who should stay behind with the nuke on Virmire, I didn't even have to think twice about leaving Ashley. Even in spite of our blossoming romance, I couldn't bear the thought of tackling the rest of the game without Kaidan at my side to Lift and Throw my enemies about.

In my next playthrough, whenever that ends up being, I intend to try out a different class, a different alignment (my Shepard leaned more towards Renegade than Paragon), and some different party members, to mix up my experience. Maybe Garrus and Liara, or Tali and Liara, given what I've read in this thread.

I'm about halfway through the game and i'm very happy with Tali and Wrex; having an all-combat Shepard, it's nice to have Tali be my all-techie while Wrex is my combat backup and a pretty good biotic, while from a storytelling perspective I love both characters, and it's nice to see the debates between the very narrowminded, gruff Wrex and thoughtful, openminded Tali.